that had taken on a yellow glow. Anxiety-baking, as Olivia called it, was her sister’s way of navigating the here and now.
Perhaps I should give it a go. She’d spent the last several days going through her father’s business emails and found no record as to whom the loan her father had taken out had been paid to. There was no paper trail on his company laptop or in the filing cabinets.
“Smells good in here,” Emerson said.
Olivia switched from rinsing dishes in the sink to washing her hands. “Figured the least I could do for you guys is throw together a lasagna and pie.”
“Lasagna? You made my favorite?” Jake said, coming in through the back door, the sleeves of his sweater dirtied with mud. Jake waved his dirty hands near Olivia’s face. She squealed and flicked tap water at him. “Your gutter is now clear, and you’re welcome.”
Emerson grinned at the bickering. “Apple pie’s my favorite. You trying to butter us up for something, Liv?”
Olivia turned to face them. “It’s time to get on with things. With life, work.”
Emerson cast a look toward Jake, who immediately looked concerned. “You don’t need to,” he said. “We’ve got this covered.” He circled the air around the kitchen, meaning they would continue to help Olivia with bills and the like.
When Olivia had been at her worst, their father had suggested Olivia give up her apartment and move back home with him. Fortunately, his house had no mortgage, and Emerson and Jake had agreed to keep paying Olivia’s salary while she was off work. But the upkeep was expensive, and Olivia needed help with chores to focus on her recovery.
“I know you guys would.” Olivia reached for Jake’s hand and squeezed it. “But I’ve been speaking to my therapist. I’m finding it hard being here…without Dad. It’s like a time warp. I wake at seven every morning missing the sound of the coffee grinder. I’m not like you two. The quiet drives me mad. I have zero interest in the garden. Someone else should be here. It’s a family home. And I feel like moving out and working again are the first steps in getting back to normal.”
Emerson listened as Olivia spoke. Her sister seemed…hopeful.
“Move in with me for a while,” Jake said. “I’ll tone down the farting if you promise to brush your teeth twice a day.”
Emerson smacked his arm as Olivia laughed. “You are such a jerk,” she muttered.
“I know I could live with either of you, but I think I’d like to head back downtown. I know I can’t do it until this place sells, but I think I’d like to buy instead of rent. Get on the property ladder like you two.”
Emerson’s heart stopped beating. The house. With no mortgage. It had to be worth at least five hundred thousand. With five hundred thousand, they could pay back the loan if they needed to and at least make a start on renovating the distillery. They could start with buying two new stills, even if they had to be installed in their current setup, and retire Patience to the smaller-batch runs and for new product development.
“But I started to see what I could find. Look,” Liv said, opening her laptop on the kitchen counter to show them a photograph of a listed property she liked near the university. “It’s only a one-bed. With the down payment, my mortgage would be so much lower than the rent. And that would be one less thing stressing me out. Knowing I’d be in a stronger financial position. Just looking and seeing a future made me feel so much better today.”
Olivia linked arms with Emerson, who could barely speak. “Look, Em. Don’t you think that bookcase I have in my room right now would look great in that space?”
“Yeah…fabulous,” Emerson said with all the energy she could muster. How could she consider asking Olivia to punt her recovery for the distillery? Hadn’t the only thing she’d wanted all along was for Olivia to be back to her happy self? This was the closest she had seen Olivia in months.
She’d intended to tell them about their father’s loan but planned to wait until she knew what the bank intended. Causing them unnecessary stress wasn’t the right thing to do. It hadn’t occurred to her to kick Olivia out of their father’s house until she was ready. But if she was ready now, they could sell, give Liv her share, and then she could see if Jake